Saturday, February 25, 2012

Spring fever

I am so totally over winter. Not that we have had much of a winter or anything, I am just ready for spring. Spring usually comes late to the desert, sometimes as late as June. At that point it usually just skips spring all together and snows one day and hits the 90's the next.

Yesterday was a mild day and the bees were out in force. I actually watched one of them bury herself in the chicken feed. She wandered around for a while in it and then just wiggled her way right down into it. Weird little bug. There is something in the feed that really attracts the bees. Every day that it is warm enough for them to be out, they are all over the scratch. The chickens don't seem to like that much and steer clear. I fed them yesterday and am watching close to make sure they don't starve. So far so good.

I have plans to split my hive this spring and am working (nagging) on Hubby to get me another hive built. So far he seems very hesitant. I think he is intimidated by building it. Not sure why, he built a nice big shed for the dogs complete with loft, windows and dog doors. He also built our nice chicken coop. A beehive should be a walk in the park.

I have also been looking through seed catalogs and planning this years garden. We learned a lot last year and are going to make a few changes this year just so things run smoother. We are going to plant the potatoes and onions first (like soon) and the lettuce and radishes last. I got over excited and planted all of the instant gratification plants first last year and had too short of a growing season for the plants with a longer maturity time.

I also put in an order for chicks already. I am going to get two more Black Australorps, and six light Brahmas. I had really wanted some blue laced red wyandottes but I had to order a minimum of 10 and they were over $4 a chick. *sigh* So no pretty hens for me this year. My hens have already started laying for the season and are keeping us stocked nicely.

2 comments:

I am ready for Spring too. I like snow and cold,mbut we really haven't had much of either and I am annoyed with the inbetween. One day it is 70 degrees and the next it is snowing, literally. Happened twice this week, but the snow wasn't even worth a lick.

That's how our winter has been too. We had a whole week in the upper 60's and then snow and ice. Up to the 50's and then back to the 0 range. Not enough snow to supply our water table or snowboard. Summer is going to be rough this year.

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